Could a bricked Tesla battery cost you $40,000?

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Let your Tesla battery run down to empty and it may have to be replaced for $40,000. That’s what one site claims was the fate of five of the all-electric Tesla Roadsters. For that to happen, you have to walk away from a Tesla already low on juice and let it sit while parasitic losses take it to zero, at which point the battery is a brick and can’t be recharged, only replaced. The story behind the story has taken on a life of its own with charges about the motives of the author.

Tesla’s owner’s manual says a fully charged Roadster battery will last 11 weeks. But there’s also a warning that a car left to sit for more than two weeks should be plugged into Tesla’s $2,000 special charger. A car low on power could also be done in by a power cord that comes unplugged, a circuit breaker or ground fault interrupter that trips, or a long extension cord that can’t handle the current flow. It’s one more thing to worry about if you leave for an extended trip

In the case of a Tesla, you apparently can’t just do a deep and loving recharge: no battery version of the dent wizard. When the battery bricks, or fully discharges, you replace the battery pack at a cost of around $40,000 ($32,000 plus labor and taxes). It’s not covered by the Tesla warranty or car insurance. You can buy a $12,000 replacement policy that would cover a worn out battery but not a dead-from-total-discharge battery while the car is under warranty. TheUnderstatement contends at least five of 2,200 Tesla Roadsters have suffered this condition and Tesla has ways to track battery condition remotely, via on-board telematics monitoring, and attempts to contact owners. The story can’t make up its mind whether this is a good thing (Tesla just saved you forty large) or bad thing (Big Brother and all).

A lead-acid car battery costs about $100, is good for five years, and can be recharged in most cases until death from old age, although some badly depleted batteries can freeze in cold weather. Hybrid car batteries, mostly nickel-metal hydride, cost about $2,500 and in daily use they’re never discharged below 20% or 25% (or charged above 80%). By living in that middle range, they’re good almost indefinitely, at least to 11 years, which is the scrappage life for the average vehicle.

It’s apparently parasitic losses of the car’s electrical subsystems that cause the discharge when parked. A lithium-ion battery, such as used in a laptop or smartphone, is the same general technology as Tesla and other electric cars such as Nissan Leaf use. Unconnected, they hold charge for many months. It’s unclear if Tesla could engineer the car to disconnect all electrical subsystems if the car reaches a critical discharge level, say 2%, to stretch its remaining life.

Tesla has released this statement:

“All automobiles require some level of owner care. For example, combustion vehicles require regular oil changes or the engine will be destroyed. Electric vehicles should be plugged in and charging when not in use for maximum performance. All batteries are subject to damage if the charge is kept at zero for long periods of time. However, Tesla avoids this problem in virtually all instances with numerous counter-measures. Tesla batteries can remain unplugged for weeks (even months), without reaching zero state of charge. Owners of Roadster 2.0 and all subsequent Tesla products can request that their vehicle alert Tesla if SOC [state of charge] falls to a low level. All Tesla vehicles emit various visual and audible warnings if the battery pack falls below 5 percent SOC. Tesla provides extensive maintenance recommendations as part of the customer experience.”

The story has become something of a soap opera with charges about the motives of one of the owners of the five known bricked cars and whether leaked emails were altered. Jalopnik noted that Green Car Reports used a headline “Is Tesla ‘Bricking’ Story Just An Angry Owner’s Shakedown” and later changed it to “Is Tesla ‘Bricking’ Story Just An Angry Owner’s Warranty Claim.”

Meanwhile, this could be one more cautionary tale about the challenges of being an early adopter. And it’s all the more amazing that you can travel 200 miles on a energy source that weighs just 30 pounds, not 1,000-2,000 pounds: five gallons of gasoline or diesel fuel.

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And it only gets 50 miles for a charge in some testing, which makes this car laughable to say the least.

Joel Hruska

You have a car that gets 40 to the gallon on the highway?

I know that’s *possible*, with the right car, conservative driving, and if you aren’t hauling much, but I’d amend that to be 40-50 lbs of fuel. Then again, we’ve always known that fossil fuels were great for energy. That’s why we’ve used them.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BZAQADAQLMASV6KUR3SNKAALXI evilkillerwhale

There’s a major mistake in the last paragraph. The Tesla cars are going 200 miles on something like a billionth of a pound. The battery is a lot more like a gas TANK than the gasoline in the tank. When you recharge the car, it’s not measurably heavier. When you refuel the gas-powered cars, it’s much heavier.

That’s a lack of understanding if I’ve ever seen one.

Duke Fawcett: As far as 50 miles per charge in some testings: I can force my Corvette to get 10 mpg by repeatedly gunning it and then stopping. That doesn’t mean that the Corvette gets 10mpg. Question your sources.

Neon Frank

“When you recharge the car, it’s not measurably heavier. When you refuel the gas-powered cars, it’s much heavier.”
The fuel weight is shifted away from the car to the power generation source so unless its solar or wind there is still fuel weight and pollution, but its not obvious

Anonymous

… not counting hydro or nuclear power.

Anyway, I think you really need to consider the full weight of the propulsion system, not just the fuel and its container. There are most likely quite significant differences in engine and transmission weights. Also an electric car has no need for exhaust systems, catalytic converters mufflers etc.

To make a comparison between arbitrarily chosen individual components in vastly different systems seems quite pointless to me.

James Patterson

Apparently you do not understand traffic in some cities. In some cities, that is exactly how traffic travels every day. Except in your world of course.

Neon Frank

Apple owns Tesla?

rickcain2320

Well at least the Battery is replaceable. If Apple designed it you would have to send the car to the factory for all minor service.

http://twitter.com/hhtp970 Heath Hrappstead

Lets remember that every gallon of gasoline requires at least 6 to 7 Kwh of electricity. That’s not counting all the drilling, trucking, shipping, pumping, gas stations, etc, etc. Also the Tesla typically get 200 miles per charge not 50 miles, which is only if the car is being flogged hard.

http://profile.yahoo.com/EVAH7N25SF2LYMI4BHQ2O7D7CY Holly

Don’t get all caught up in all the fuzzy math.. Save your math for the cost of financing an electric car verses the monthly price of gasoline. Bottom line is Tesla is both efficient AND beautiful! All beautiful things require care. (DUH!) Throw in that it doesn’t destroy the environment and costs roughly a penny a mile to drive… Tesla will be my next car. & yours too -I hope!

notmyamerica

Ya if you live in a city and plan to go nowhere they could be affective,,, go ahead throw the family and your camping gear in go to the mountains….Plus you might ought to factor in replacement batteries,all the strip mining that goes into the materials that are in your batteries, and many other factors… PENNY A MILE TO DRIVE HAHAHAHH average person drives 10k per year after the real time battery replacement of 5 years and a cost of over $5000 / 50,000miles starts at $0.10 per mile plus the carbon foot print is equal to a standard car…Needless to say I will never own a glorified golf cart called a telsa

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